Sorry for the off topic post, but since it's a local issue, I'm posting a link to their site, where you can sign a petition to extend their lease. Also there are a few videos there detailing what's going on. For anyone who doesn't know about them, they raise oysters in Drakes Bay, just upwind of Tubamancha. This is going all the way to the top, with Dianne Feinstein involved and Ken Salazar visiting the site recently. Here's the link:

I gotta laugh. When the BLM was heavily involved in wilderness set-asides -- multi-use lands being considered for redesignation as Wilderness Areas -- in the mid 70s, they hosted a big national convention in New Mexico of the Wilderness Society and other interested parties.

Wilderness Areas allow no motorized intrusion ... NONE ... and any existing evidence of man must be truly minimal and/or completely reversible to its natural state. The Wilderness Society wanted huge sections, including thousands of contiguous square miles full of deep mines plus extensive surface infrastructure, set aside, and just couldn't comprehend the BLM's two obstacles to returning those areas to their natural state:
1. When you bulldoze a road, you get a bigger, more obvious, road.
2. When you move the mines and dig them somewhere else, as they demanded, you get a BIGGER HOLE IN THE GROUND. Besides ... and many of these deep-thinking basket-weaving majors couldn't understand this ... YOU HAVE TO DIG THE MINES WHERE THE MINERALS EXIST, not just wherever man has already messed things up beyond recovery.

I'm not kidding. It took the BLM some serious 'splaining to get those points across to those Vibram-soled, smelly, sack-clothed, overzealous, hemp-headed dimwits ... some of whom now infest or maybe even run government agencies unfettered by such nuisances as public and congressional review or the rule of law. The petition is a good start, but you may be surprised how far your personal involvement can go even when the state and federal governments are already involved. Although I was just a 4-wheeler and dirt biker at a public gathering of a couple of hundred people, I ended up participating in action committees, eating lunch at a 4-person table with just the federal head of the BLM and two of his aides (we talked issues, not small talk), and later getting federal reimbursement of my costs incurred in formally evaluating remote lands all over southern Utah (on my dirt bike or 4X4, of course) under consideration for Wilderness set-aside.

The same approaches got me formally assigned to the Utah State Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and to a federal government working group trying to expand public access to the shores of the lower Columbia and Snake Rivers, from the ocean to Idaho.

What did that take? Showing up, opening my mouth, demonstrating familiarity with the pros and cons of the issue, showing an open mind (my Wilderness set-aside recommendations went both ways), offering solutions instead of or with complaints, and being an articulate spokesman ... all these helped, but what mattered most, I believe, was volunteering to participate. These guys' plates are full, and competent free help is in short supply.

Sign petitions, of course, but get personally involved, too. Even if the final outcome is not what you wanted, there's a lot of satisfaction in trying and you might even get some unexpected benefits.

(Tip: don't suggest anything like that to the WSers shut out of their New Jersey beaches; they've made it clear they don't want ideas for preserving or regaining access.)

The Disneyland Iam talking about is more public trails, kayak rentals, camping, etc. The way it is now. Several families have the right to farm and ranch and be stweards of the property. Those few have an agreement to renew leases every 40 years into pertuity provided they use the land in an enviromentally friendly way. That right is being taken away using lies. (check the clip) Only 30 families set foot on this land. You may find that elitest, but it is ecologically the lowest impact by fact that there hardly is any one around to disturb it. Pt. Reyes is a beautiful place with plenty of access. Leave well enough alone.

If you ever have an opportunity to take a tour of the oyster farm (assuming they get an extension) I highly recommend it. They have them once in a while as a function of Marin Organic. Kevin is very good at explaining the history of the place, the effect that 60 years under Johnson's management wreaked havoc on the environment, and how they are mitigating that in the way they manage the area for the purpose of farming oysters. He usually caps it off with free samples. It is really fascinating how an oyster is raised. It requires no feeding, no fertilization, no antibiotics, no growth hormones, and no transportation. And the result is 40% of the oysters raised in California. I lived 10 years in Louisiana and can suck down 3 or 4 dozen oysters and I tell you, I feel much safer eating west-coast oysters than the mud-raised warm water oysters from the south. I've been buying Drakes Bay oysters for years and would really miss them. At a time where everyone is talking jobs and sustainability, it boggles the mind to see the likes of the NPS and the Sierra club try to shut him down - with them it's all black or white. Victor is right about the NPS being a bunch of Nazi's. Next time the Sierra Club comes to my door I'm going to release the hounds on them.

I have been lecturing Sierra Club members at my front door for decades. Every one of them has had or convincingly faked complete ignorance of the downsides of their once-vital, now literally criminal behavior.

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